GREEN: Want a Great New Sustainability Idea? Ask Your Employees

Column by K.J. McCorry

Posted
Wednesday, November 16, 2011 11:33 pm

By K.J. McCorry

The stories are endless of companies finding great
sustainability ideas from the people they know best – their staff.
Often employees have great ideas of how to reduce waste, energy or
do something differently to support green initiatives. Often times
these ideas never get noticed because nobody ever asked employees
for their suggestions.

Wal-Mart in 2007 introduced their idea of Personal
Sustainability Plans(PSP) to their workers to create their own
personal sustainability initiatives. Through those PSP's Wal-Mart
was able to generate some great employee suggestions of how
Wal-Mart could be greener in their operations.

Toyota when looking at how to reduce waste in their
manufacturing, most of the ideas came from the ground-level
manufacturing staff. Toyota is also active with employee training
to increase environmental awareness along with getting their
employees to think more about the issues and ways they can improve
in sustainability. They offer ‘eco-points' to their employees who
offer ideas to help Toyota be more green in operations.

The National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF) in a 2011
survey found that engaging employees in sustainability initiatives
can improve a business' bottom line and help it reach its
sustainability goals faster. It is important to set up the
infrastructure in your organization for green ideas and
suggestions.

Here are the five steps needed to set up a system for employee
ideas.

1. Provide a forum to give suggestions. This could be through a
company's social network site, via online discussion forum,
SharePoint sites or within regular company meetings. Make sure
whatever system you have can manage volume of incoming ideas and
suggestions.

2. Develop Criteria. Have your green team and/or sustainability
coordinator determine the criteria for evaluating ideas and
suggestions. This should co-inside with the sustainability plan and
objectives. Be sure to communicate these criteria to your staff so
they have an understanding of what the company is looking for in
regards to sustainability ideas.

3. Review and Process. Have some mechanism to filter and process
these ideas and suggestions. Often these can go through a Green
Team committee or working group. Then depending on the size and
scope of your sustainability program, the best suggestions can be
moved up the chain of command to management.

4. Make Decision. Once an idea has been processed through the
appropriate channels then determine who has the final
decision-making authority to begin implementation on the idea. With
any sustainability initiative it is vital to have management
buy-in. If the CEO or top level management doesn't think it is a
good idea, often then it won't get implemented.

5. Give Recognition. The ideas that the company chooses to
implement (or possibly consider further), those employees should be
rewarded and recognized. In Toyotas example they developed a point
system. Recognition could entail a public thank you at an all hands
meeting. Even consider getting that employee engaged in the
implementation process. This increases participation and also helps
employees ‘own' their ideas. Be mindful to thank other employee
suggestions even though they weren't accepted, they might be used
at a future time. This recognition promotes employees engagement
and hopeful entices them to generate more ideas.